November 5th

I’m on the train back from the wild Kavkaz (that’s the Caucasus in Russian, but let’s be honest, Kavkaz sounds way more wild/cool). We stayed in a town called Kislovodsk, a spa/resort town nestled in the mountains of the region. The place is covered in sanatoriums and this is the getaway for the average Russian. Not in November though… Of all the things Kislovodsk is famous for, probably its greatest claim to fame is having an average of 305 sunny days a year. I bring this up because we, in all of our wonderful luck, managed to be in this town for five of the 50 cloudy days a year. Not just cloudy, but also misty, freezing, with low laying clouds obscuring the allegedly stunning views of the surrounding mountains. Don’t get me wrong, there was something wild and poetic about the cloud choked mountain passes, but I would have loved at least one sunny day. In every town we stopped at, the first thing we saw were advertisements for views of Mt. Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, about 50 miles away. But let’s be honest, I climbed two-thirds of the way up Mt. Elbrus, 5000 meters from the summit and still couldn’t see it (it was a blizzard, but still… as our tour guide said, “If you climb Mt. Elbrus in great weather, you’ll forget it in a month. Climb it in a blizzard and you’ll remember for your whole life.” That being said I’m not sure I agree with that and I now have to go back and actually see the summit). Anyhow, it was a wonderful vacation getaway. We may easily have been the only 11 English speakers in Kislovodsk, so we had the run of the place. There are mountains and trails everywhere, and wild, beautiful nature is only 20 minutes outside the city. Also, the people here are much friendlier than your average Russian. Which is funny, because they are your average Russian, but they’re on vacation and who’s not happy on vacation? We met a ton of people and several from Voronezh. One great thing about meeting people for the first time here is that we’ve got the basic dialogue down so pat that we often come off as really good at Russian then manage to disengage without having that illusion shattered. Anyhow, highlights:

a) Climbing Mt. Elbrus – It’s really just a giant series of cable car rides, but it was still incredible and not bad for a Florida kid. Probably the neatest part was the drive there. Mt. Elbrus is a paltry five miles from Russia’s border with Georgia. As everyone knows, as far as friendly borders goes, this is no U.S.- Canada. Scattered along the road were numerous Russian Army posts replete with Kalashnikov wielding troops pulling guard in trenches. There were artillery emplacements everywhere along the side of the road, all pointed to the south, towards Georgia. I know this sounds melodramatic, but this is probably the most dangerous place I’ve ever been. This region of the world (North Ossetia and the border with Georgia) have seen enough war and terrorist attacks in the two years (2008 being the worst, with a train getting blown up in Kislovodsk among others) to last a lifetime. The closer we got to Georgia, the more detritus of war littered the side of the road. Truly shocking. Also somewhat surprising was the realization that this entire area was Muslim, an inescapable conclusion when one notices the ubiquitous mosques in each little town we traveled through. The mountain itself was obscured by mist and snow, but it was still majestic and we all had a great time on the terrifyingly rickety Soviet chairlifts that carried us over the jagged snow covered rocks.

Much more to follow...